Late basket sinks host Franklin in Tip-Off Tournament finals

Despite having four players reach double figures, the Franklin College women’s basketball team came up a basket short in Saturday’s championship game of the Tip-Off Tournament.

Senior Nancy Coulter banked a layup off the glass with 29 seconds to play to lift Baldwin-Wallace to an 86-84 against the tournament-host Grizzlies.

Coulter finished with a team-high 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting from the field. Collectively, Baldwin-Wallace made 8 of 16 three-point shots.

Franklin (1-1) trailed much of the first half but stayed in striking distance thanks to the strong play of senior center Jess Prewett, who scored 13 of Franklin’s first 20 points.

But when Prewett picked up her second personal foul with 11:25 left, she at out the remainder of the half.

Also saddled with two fouls in the first half was sophomore forward Lindsey Dall, who finished with a game-high 21 points.

With a 45-37 lead at the break, the Yellow Jackets bolted to a 60-47 advantage in the first four minutes of the second half, but the Grizzlies responded with an 11-0 run to close to 60-58.

Baldwin-Wallace (2-0) answered with a 10-0 run to go up 68-58, but the Grizzlies rallied with consecutive 3-pointers by Dall, senior Lindsay Rich and freshman Alicia Farmer.

Franklin finally evened the score at 84-84 on two free throws by sophomore forward Nichole Thompson.

On the next possession, the ball went to Coulter, who scored the winning basket.

Franklin had one last chance, but a shot by Thompson with two seconds left rolled off the rim.

Dall finished with 21 points for the Grizzlies. Rich had 19; Prewett had 18, and Thompson had 11.

First-year Franklin coach Jennifer Lodge applauded the Grizzlies’ ability to give themselves a chance to win despite trailing most of the way.

“This team really deals with adversity really well,” Lodge said. “I always say don’t look at the scoreboard and do what we do and get one stop at a time. As a full unit we broke down in different parts of the game, which we’ve got to fix, and we’re going to do it.”